Back with Chapter 2. Thanks everyone for taking the time to read + review my introduction to this story.😊 As mentioned each chapter from here on out will start with a past flashback in Italics. The flashbacks will go from their senior year of high school through college until we reach the pivotal point in the story.

Also, I was meant to say this in my last author's note but Karen is both Nathan and Lucas' mother in this story, she split with Dan in their senior year of high school and custody was split so Dan got Nathan. Some of the other details will come clearer the more you learn of their past.

Disclaimer: I own nothing affiliated with One Tree Hill or the script from the episode 'Lifetime Piling Up.'

⁛Chapter 2⁛

Karen squealed as her son came in through the door in his signature grey hoodie and basketball planted by his hip. 'Oh honey I'm so proud of you.'

'What did Haley say to you?' Nathan said as he scoped the place. 'Her and her big mouth…'

'Watch it superstar.' Haley teased jabbing him in the side with her tray of dishes as she scooted around the back effortlessly.

Karen smiled at the usual banter between the pair.

'It was just a conversation with the coach it's not like I've been offered a place…' Nathan shrugged it off as he sat on the stool. 'Which isn't likely if my tutor isn't exactly ready for our session…' He made a point of saying that loudly.

Haley peeped her head out of the kitchen sticking her tongue out. 'OH whatever superstar, you're already letting it go to your head.' She teased.

'Stop calling me that.' Nathan groaned as she giggled before going back into change.

'You know you two are going to end up married someday.' Karen said as she filled up the mugs of coffee.

'Stop it, we've know each other forever we're just friends.' Nathan said easily.

'Good place to start.' Karen reminded him.

He just shook his head as Haley bounced back around the counter, that girl and her energy he honestly didn't know where she got it from.

'Ok you ready hot shot?' She teased giggling as he rolled his eyes.

'Don't stay out to late.' Karen reminded the pair.

'It doesn't matter mum I've to go back to dad's anyway.'

'It won't be like this for long more honey.'

'I know.' He said softly as he hugged her. 'I'll call you when I get back ok.'

She smiled biding them goodbye.

'Does Dan know about the phone call?' Haley said as the pair of them fell into stride alongside each other.

'No and he's not going to Haley until I have to tell him if there's an offer.'

'There will be an offer.'

'Haley what if…'

'Nathan you've been working so damn hard on your grades not to mention how hard you're working yourself on the court every week….you've an amazing tutor…' She teased pleased with herself when he rolled his eyes but smiled regardless.

'Little high on yourself aren't you?'

'Yea well I'm hoping it will rub off on you.' She teased before sighing softly. 'Seriously Nathan one of us has to see how great you are.'

He sighed to himself wrapping his right arm around her tugging her in against him. 'Maybe I just don't want to engage in all this college talk because it means everything is going to change for us in just a few short months….'

'Not everything.' Haley said. 'I'll still be there for you, you know that right?'

'Yea of course I know that, it's just going to be different.'

'It'll be better Nathan, for one you'll be out from under Dan maybe not completely but you and Luke will be together again and he won't get to you as much.'

'Plus there are some things I won't miss like Theresa and one-quarter of her squad trying to put me in their place. Seriously a girl can be friends with the star player of the basketball team without being on the 'cheer squad.' Haley said making little finger commas at her words. 'Or without doing him, she's obsessed with finding out if we're secretly dating I just don't understand what she's trying to get from that.'

'Yea speaking of that…' Nathan began as they plopped themselves down at their usual spot on the docks. 'I think she's trying to get me…'

'Well now whose being high on themselves?' Haley teased.

'After practice yesterday I stayed on to do more drills and well yeah…..I had a visitor in the showers let's put it that way…'

'Theresa…..' Haley said mouth dropping open. 'She didn't…'

'Oh she did.' Nathan said. 'Came into the showers and dropped her towel.'

He was smirking amused as Haley's eyes bugged out. 'You're kidding, you're totally trying to pull one on me.'

'I'm not Haley seriously she just dropped that towel…'

'So she was totally naked?'

'As the day she was born.' He said.

'What happened then?'

'I got the hell out of there.' Nathan exclaimed as he went pulling his stuff out of his bag.

'You and Theresa, captain of the cheersluts…' Haley teased as she ate away on the crisps between them on the table. 'That's hard to picture.'

'Yea, I'd say hard is the right word.' Nathan joked.

'Eww…' Haley admonished him as she reached across to slap him on the shoulder, the two of them laughing regardless.

'Ok what's this?' He wondered as he opened the cracker jack box.

'Oh score a bracelet.' Haley said as he pulled it out. 'Last time I got a tattoo of a random number.'

'Well here …eh it matches that thing you call a shirt.'

'My mother made this for me and shut up.' Haley admonished him slipping her hand into the bracelet.

'You shut up.' He teased her childishly smirking at her.

Haley stuck her tongue out.

He laughed.

'Don't say I never gave you anything.'

'This house is really beautiful Brooke.' Haley commented softly in awe of its features.

'He's given me everything and more.' Brooke said with a loveable look towards her fiancé who was currently engaged in conversation with Jeremy.

She felt Brooke's questioning gaze on her and she wasn't sure what she was going to ask or say but she knew whom it was about. Which, not to Haley's surprise was very daring of Brooke considering she had said Nathan conveniently wouldn't be here .

Just as Brooke opened her mouth her attention was alerted elsewhere.

Saved by the bell literally.

Haley exhaled not realising she'd even been holding her breath as she glanced around the kitchen come living room.

She couldn't see him anywhere.

She ran her fingers nervously along the sparkling granite counter top as Jeremy engaged with conversation with Lucas to her right. The two had never met, counted by the fact Haley and he had only being dating the guts of 6 months and the space between her life and her friends many who were graduated had grown considerably wider.

Well, until today. Today she felt like a caged bird being offered crusts of her past life while trying to balance through the present. Being here, in Tree Hill with everyone at once had her wanting to flee.

She never liked to see birds caged anyway.

She had been aware for some time, with the wedding date and all that they were going to see each other again soon but she wasn't sure she'd ever be ready for what it may do to her.

'Haley…' Jeremy prodded her.

Lucas smirked as Haley took in the details of the house, she hadn't even heard the question.

'How's teaching going?' He repeated again.

'Oh, it's going great Luke. The degree has been so interesting. I'm almost there now.'

'Six months and she's fully qualified.' Jeremy said proudly tucking Haley into his side.

She sent them all a weak smile just as the pup from yesterday scampered up to them pawing Haley's legs. Haley smiled softly at the pup's attention. 'Hello Marley.'

'How old is he?' Jeremy was always about the logical. Even in the company of a puppy he kept things on the straight at narrow, she supposed that's why he had taken so much to his MSc in corporate law.

'Almost 6 months.'

'Whose decision was it to get him?' Haley questioned then as she knelt down stroking the playful puppy behind his ears.

'We actually thought it would be good for N….' Lucas paused then his eyes briefly met Haley's before he spoke again. 'I wanted a dog, Brooke didn't. Nathan kind of meddled her around.'

Jeremy smirked. 'That's how it works man, 2 against 1.'

If they got the dog for Nathan, why couldn't Lucas just say it? Haley wondered why he stopped as if catching himself on those words and just turned it around. Strange. Or maybe she was completely overthinking it.

'Come on buddy let's take you outside. You guys want to see the garden?'

'Sure.' Haley said as Lucas led them through the open plan living area reaching the French balcony doors. These were definitely more Brooke and Haley smiled as she took in the subtle detailing of the house any would overlook, it's like she could single out the aspects of each of their personalities and yet it all came together in this rather odd yet harmonious array of colour and design that for someone who didn't know them would think they were one and the same.

She was so caught up in her surroundings it took her a few seconds to notice the retriever pup bounding off to the brunette man who was crouched down in the garden.

Haley watched as he dropped the small badminton racket in his hand and ruffled the dog's coat. The puppy was completely lapping up the attention from him. The little girl ran over to the two of them smiling delightfully as Marley rolled over on his belly.

Lily Scott. She had come as a surprise to everyone their final year of high school. It didn't take her long to do the math and realise the girl must be near 5.

She wasn't sure why it ached so much watching her with Nathan like this. But it did.

She was thankful for Luke right now for filling in the gaps in Jeremy's mind, lord knows she couldn't find the words in that moment.

Nostalgia was a funny thing, there was a fondness about it but it also caused a great ache in one's heart, a longing maybe even for something that never belonged to you in the first place.

Badminton. Nathan was teaching Lily badminton. It's what they had played when they were kids for the sole reason as a young boy he had some fascination with things flying through the air, he became the very epitome of that when he began his basketball career in their high school years.

She couldn't pinpoint when exactly things had shifted from the young naivety of watching things sail through the sky to them becoming the targets those moving objects were moving towards. And targets they had become.

'You alright Haley?'

Haley glanced to her side where Lucas was giving her one of those looks, Jeremy had stepped inside.

'He's gone to the bathroom if you're wondering.' He said softly.

'I'm sorry..' Haley said meekly not even sure what she was apologising for right now.

'You don't have to apologise, this is a lot to take in.' He said kindly to her knowing watching Nathan with his younger sister was what he truly meant.

'She's so big.' Haley said softly.

'She's a little drama queen now, doesn't know her luck with both of her brothers in town. She's starting school in September.'

Haley smiled at that grateful for Lucas' familiar eased rapport, she just knew he wasn't going to push her, he was just letting her be which was everything she needed right now.

'Luke…' The girl squealed as she noticed her big brother on the deck. 'Look what Natey taught me.'

Natey. Haley smiled at the childish nickname as she watched Lily who hadn't noticed her yet. Her face of concentration had the pair of them smiling as she dropped the shuttle onto the net and swung sending it sailing through the air nice and high. Her smile was wide and delightful.

'Well done Lils.' Nathan said as he stood up from where he was crouched down. It was only then he noticed her and she could visibly see his whole-body tense uncomfortably.

'That was amazing.' Lucas said. 'I think you might play for the team someday Lils.' He commended her. 'Hey Lils, I want you to meet a special friend of ours.' He said easily including Nathan in that. 'This is Haley. You met her before but you were very small.' He mused.

'Hello Haley, I'm Lily Scott nice to meet you again.' The girl said sweetly.

The brothers couldn't help but smile at her introduction.

'Haley James, nice to meet you again Lily.'

'I like your eyeshadow.' She said.

'Oh thank you.' Haley said smiling at Luke who mumbled the little girl had spent too much time with Brooke.

'You're very pretty. Isn't she pretty Nathan?' She said giving her big brother a toothy grin.

'Sure Lils.' He smiled his eyes briefly meeting Haley's before the pair of them glanced away from each other.

Lucas watched amused before he bent down and scooped up his sister in his arms. 'Come on munchkin I'm going to need some help refilling all the food bowls.'

So much for Luke not pushing things Haley figured as he walked away, no doubt privy to the uncomfortableness between her and Nathan. Hell probably Marley could feel it at this stage as he lay with his head resting over his crossed paws rather surprisingly not whining for attention.

'So this house is something…' Haley said shifting gears from everything that lay unsaid between them to maybe the one bit of common ground they could civilly address this late summer's evening.

Who was she kidding though? She even cringed at her own failing awkward conversation.

'Yea.' Nathan said rather disinterested, hands sitting into his pockets as he glanced around no doubt looking for someone to rescue him from this conversation.

Another moment of silence passed between them.

So civil formalities definitely wasn't the way to go, better just bite the bullet.

'Nathan can we huh find somewhere and talk?' She said softly, teeth grazing over her lip-gloss.

'I'm not so sure that's a good idea.' He answered stiffly.

'What talking?' She frowned.

'Yea.' He quipped back rather hastily. 'I don't really think you're going to want to hear what I have to say…'

'Nathan we….' She began only he cut her off.

'Besides, I don't want to take away from Brooke and Lucas day by some pitiful attempt at some form of reconciliation..'

'That's not what this is.' Haley said quietly feeling the sliced edges of his sharp tone.

'Well then, I guess we're done here.' He shrugged at her before he walked back inside.

XXXXX

'There you are.'

Haley's fingered dropped from the silver-plated frame as she turned in his arms. Jeremy was smiling as his hands wrapped around her shoulders observing the picture that stood on the crisp white shelving unit behind Haley. 'Look at that goofy grin on your face.' He teased her.

She remembered that night. The two girls had jumped on Nathan and Luke's backs for the photo, they had surprised the brothers nearly sent them tumbling to the ground, the moment was captured and framed perfectly. After that moment they'd spray painted 'we are here' onto the courts surface and made a promise it was not an end and in 4 years they would be back here.

4 years had passed.

'Haley are you sure you're okay?' Jeremy asked her gently.

She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again, concern awash on his features. 'I am, sorry I keep spacing out. I know I'm the worst company tonight.'

'You've nothing to apologise for with everything that's been going on.' He said. 'I can take you home, I've plenty of time before the flight.'

'No it's fine, I'm fine I promise.' She said as she leaned in against his chest. 'Are you going to give me the same lecture my mum gave me…you know the whole worrying doesn't change it..' She said giving him a look with a soft smile.

'In fact I was going to tell you to pour yourself a drink.' He teased glad that had her laughing softly at least.

Haley smiled, it didn't actually sound so bad.

'I was actually coming to find you, I'm going to get going. Look I wish I could stay and …'

Haley silenced him with a chaste kiss to his lips. 'Don't. You dropped everything and sat on that flight with me…' She said softly. He just smiled as he leaned to capture her lips again. 'If you need me…' He assured her.

'I'll call..' Haley said with a smile. He gave her one last lingering kiss on her cheek before he walked away.

Haley lingered there as she skirted the occupants in the house again before she caught sight of Nathan, she wasn't even sure what she was doing by following after him, it's not like she had anything prepared to say and after the hostility earlier she knew she was going up against a brick wall with him but hey she was going to have a drink anyway, may as well give herself a reason to.

'Hey….' Haley said hesitantly as she came upon him rummaging through boxes in the basement where piles of Brooke and Lucas seemed to be all stored.

He almost dropped the bottle in his hands as she came into view. His eyes went wide then as recognition dawned on him, that damn door.

Nathan bolted up past Haley, his long legs taking him back up the stairs in seconds and he cursed inwardly knocking his fist against the closed door. 'Dammit…'

'Nathan…' She said wearily.

'Did someone send you down here?' His face was hard as stone as he turned around looking down on her from the top step.

'No why?'

'They don't know I'm down here and the door locks from this side ….dammit.' He fumed again. 'I had a piece of timber wedged by the door…'

'I'm sorry I didn't know.' Haley said.

'What are you even doing down here Haley?'

'I came after you.' Haley admitted, no point lying about it seen as they were evidently stuck down here.

Nathan laughed bitterly, it was empty and rancid to her ears. God, hearing those words from her now after all this time coupled with them being stuck in a basement well he could almost laugh at the pure irony of it all.

There were many days that blended to weeks and months he wanted to hear that from her. Now he just couldn't care.

'Well if you did you're wasting your time…' He said rather aloofly as he walked back down the stairs again and over to the box he had been going through.

'Really…' Haley said softly. 'After all this time this is how it's going to be…'

He felt like throwing the bottle against the wall as her words hit him. 'What did you expect?' He sniped at her standing up from where he was crouched down. 'What?..You cut me out of your life Haley and you except a warm welcome, what you think we can just reunite at Brooke and Lucas' housewarming and sit making small talk…'

'No I didn't think we could just reunite but part of me hoped we could maybe talk like adults. We're not kids anymore Nathan.'

'Right…' He said mocking her by being in agreement with her. 'Funny how you still act like one.'

'Me?' Haley scoffed as she faced him head on now refusing to let him hold all the power despite his much taller and eveidently more masculine frame than she remembered. God, he had filled out. 'I'm acting like a child when you're the one running away from every conversation….'

'Guess I learned from the best.' He sniped at her.

She shook her head at his relentless mockery. 'Fine I ran, I cut you out!' She fired back. 'What about you? You didn't even need….or want me in your life anymore Nathan..'

'I reached out to you. I called you and you didn't even respond…' He said stepping closer to her.

'Because I knew.' Haley fought back. 'I knew you just had another argument with Rachel, that's always when you needed me right…when she wasn't there?'

'That's not true.' He countered, both of their voices raising with each word they spoke.

'Isn't it?' Haley scoffed. 'And then you make up and you don't need me again.'

'I always needed you.' Nathan blurted out his eyes that had been so dark now swimming in emotion before he stepped back almost in disbelief he'd even let them words out.

He didn't do vulnerable, and with Haley he promised he never would again.

She watched as he distanced himself from her, those words hanging disconcertingly in the air between them.

She almost didn't believe in such a few short minutes so much pain had resurfaced not that she should be so surprised, it's like when they were together their emotions coveted them, she'd never being able to hide herself from him and vice versa, its why their friendship had been touched with some power not many had but that was also to their detriment now.

She swallowed back the sob that crawled up her throat, it was painfully raw without the moisture to dampen it. She couldn't break down and cry not now. Not here.

And with her next words it's like she just wanted to hurt herself even more. 'So what? Has she a ring now? I mean you were the golden couple at Duke nothing was going to stand in your way…'

He knew exactly what that nothing she was referring to was. Only it wasn't nothing - it had shaped every moment of their life since.

He didn't even have words anymore. There was nothing more to say.

And she took his silence as her answer.

It's what she'd always known, still it didn't hurt her heart any less. He hadn't come out and said it but he hadn't denied it either.

Haley sunk to the bottom step of the stairway pulling out her phone, the no signal glaring right at her. 'I told Brooke I was looking to talk to you.' She admitted softly. 'So she knows we're together if they start wondering where we are…'

'People won't, they're all at that tipsy loosing track of time stage' He mumbled as he sunk down between two cardboard boxes a good distance away from her.

Haley could do with a drink now.

'You came down here for alcohol right?' Haley said. He looked her in the eyes again and she wondered to herself when had his eyes become so inexpressive.

Nathan didn't say anything else as he tugged a can out from the 6 pack he had been planning to bring upstairs and rolled it over the floor.

She reached for it not surprised he'd rolled over a beer to her. Not like she had a lot of choice but she'd always hated beer and he knew that.

Things change, she guessed.

The hissing sound of the can opening was rather evasive in the otherwise stifling silence of the basement. Haley took a sip, it's bitter taste did little to appeal to her senses but its barren bread-like aftertaste surely fitted this sorry state of affairs. 'You not having one?' She didn't know why she was still talking to him, it was very clear he didn't want to make any form of conversation.

'Nah.' Nathan didn't offer up anymore and she frowned as her gaze fell on him slumped down by the boxes.

Sure he hadn't being her Nathan for a very long time but seeing him like this…

When they were younger he'd always been reclusive, shy almost while she was the more vibrant of the pair but there was always an openness to him, a sort of gentleness that people had admired from the younger Scott brother. He'd gotten that from Karen.

His shyness, his inability to see how truly talented he was and the kind of person he was used to both warm and break her heart. That hadn't changed, only now it hurt more - he seemed to carry this darkness inside of him she'd never seen before.

She'd let herself to believe that he'd got his fairy-tale with his college sweetheart. Now she wasn't so sure.

Haley sighed tipping the beer down her throt, the noise of laughter only seemed to antagonise the pain that seemed to swivel in the air of the basement.

She wasn't sure how long had passed as they sat there in stony silence, it was beginning to get cold down here. Haley cursed her light summery ensemble of a white linen kami top and denim shorts.

'My dad had an accident at work.' Haley said softly before taking another sip of beer. She continued before Nathan could say anything further. 'He suffered a bad head injury. I got the call 6 days ago, booked the first flight I could get and came home.'

It was an unsettling coincidence how things seemed to have pulled them back here at this time in their lives.

Nathan swallowed hard. 'Is he okay?'

'Right now yea but I'm not sure if he will be.' She admitted as her fingers fiddled with the tin lid of the can. 'I guess you could say it's stopped me from running.' She wasn't sure where her courage came from, everyone in her life now that knew her so well, at least the version of her that presented itself would say she never ran from a thing in her life.

Even after all this time, the separation, the distancing it's like a part of her was instinctively opening to Nathan as it always had.

And maybe it was reckless of her when it came to saying those words to him, she was only openly throwing herself in the line of fire.

Then again she had always been the reckless one of the two of them.

'I'm sorry about your dad.' His words were just that. Words. Stoic kind of like her neighbour Larry's on the morning she got back into town. Generic apology. She wasn't sure why she expected more, it's not like she deserved it.

He purposefully decided to forgo her comment about running knowing anything that he would say on the matter was only going to hurt them both even more.

'How long are you in town?' Haley asked then taking another sip of her drink.

'Does it matter?'

'It does to me.' Haley said honestly.

He bit his lip not wanting to get mad at her again but it's like he couldn't help himself, the only emotions that seemed to be swarming inside of him in her presence now were bitterness and anger.

He wasn't the boy she left behind.

'Right so you're saying if you didn't bump into me in Tree Hill you would have called? Or what the longer I stay in this town we might actually try and actually salvage something that I sabotaged..'

'Can we not do this?…' She said softly.

He scoffed. 'You were always really good at that.' He said. 'Starting something and then cutting out….'

'I don't want to fight with you.'

'Why not? I mean it's what we were best at.'

'You know that's not true.'

Nathan didn't say anything.

'I just thought….I guess I thought if you were in town a while that maybe we could….' She sighed realising how hollow those words sounded to her own ears.

'It's been 4 years and only for Brooke and Lucas wedding this year neither of us would have reached out…'

'I wanted to.'

He couldn't take this. 'That doesn't change it.' He said rather finitely. 'And I don't want to talk about it. You may be done running Haley but I was done chasing you a long time ago.'

XXXXX

'Psshhh Haley….Haley…' Haley groaned feeling the aches in her neck as she came out of her sleep opening her eyes to Brooke's amused face crouched down in front of her. It was only when she felt the timber hard against her back she realised she'd dozed off on the stairs.

She frowned coming to her senses as she felt the soft cotton of his grey sweatshirt cloak her tiny frame.

'What time is it?' She said in a daze.

'Just gone midnight.' Brooke said. 'Come on, we've got a spare bedroom.'

The two girls made their back up emerging from the basement where Lucas was currently going around with a black bin bag picking stuff up.

'Wow we really did miss the party.' Haley said as she glanced around her, the scene not far from some of their high school days.

Lucas chuckled. 'We were reliving our youth for one night and also realising why our parents used to get so pissed at our ragers.'

Haley smiled.

'Let's do it in the morning Broody, besides, we have Haley here to help.'

'Oh…no no…' Haley said. 'I wasn't even here for this.'

Lucas left the half-filled bag by the sofa as Brooke walked up to him leaving a gentle kiss on his lips. 'I'll be up in 5.' The pair of them were whispering sweet nothings to each other then, smiling and kissing softly. Haley looked away feeling she was intruding on their privacy, she smiled then as the pup scampered over to her just on time.

'Hey Marley, are you not in your bed huh buddy?' Haley said as she crouched smiling heartily as the pup leaned his head on her knees.

'It's typical Nathan's dog would take a liking to you like this, it took him weeks to even stay in the room with me without barking.'

'That's because you're scary.' Lucas teased her dodging the backhanded elbow Brooke sent his way.

'Goodnight Haley.'

'Night Lucas.' Haley smiled as she stood back up. 'So it's Nathan's dog?' She wondered.

'Oh well no, not really…he's our dog…' Brooke said and Haley watched curiously as she turned away from her. 'But seen as Nathan was with us in New York he kind of ended up taking care of him a lot.'

Haley was prone to completely running away with her own fictitious thoughts but for some reason it felt like something was off here. Sure there was very much a barrier between her and Nathan right now but it's like that had somehow extended to everyone else and yet she was sure it hadn't, Haley had kept in touch with Brooke and Lucas. It's not like they hadn't talked. Except now she was wondering about what they hadn't said.

'Come on buddy, it's long past your bedtime.' Brooke said as she called the pup over to his crate allowing Haley some space to gather her thoughts.

'You haven't asked me about it…' Haley said as she slid into the stool at counter knowing sleep was already some far off luxury tonight.

Brooke shrugged sheepishly. 'I figured you didn't want to talk about it.' She admitted siding onto the stool beside her, the girls sat in comfortable silence neither knowing how they really got here.

'Are you okay?'

Haley nodded her consent despite feeling the tears well in her eyes. 'I've always missed him you know?' She said rhetorically. 'To the point where I've spent countless nights awakes wondering if leaving was really easier and then I guess I was able to distract myself during the broad daylight. But seeing him today….I can't myself distract myself anymore..'

'Do you even want to?'

Haley shook her head feeling the tears leaking from her eyes in spite of herself.

'Haley…' Brooke said sadly as she watched her

Haley shook off her concern as she tried to swallow down the sobs, she didn't wish to fall apart like this but truthfully she'd barely being holding it together since she got word of her dad and then seeing Nathan at the docks, it's like her past was colliding with her present in the must tumultuous way

'It's my dad he's not well, that's why I'm back here and then seeing Nathan…I just…' She let her head fall into her hands trying to hide her tears before she felt the comforting arms of one of her closest friends envelop her.

'Oh Haley…why didn't you say anything?.'

'I'm still trying to process it.' She said shakily.

'Is he going to be okay?' Brooke asked softly as the girls pulled apart.

'I don't know but I think I'm going to stick around a while to figure that out.' She said quietly. Truthfully, Brooke was the first person she had said that to out loud. She hadn't even told her mom, nor Jeremy.

Brooke just smiled softly at her words. Some may call it coincidence, she had a feeling that right now in this very moment it was more like faith.

'What?' Haley said catching her small smile.

'Nathan's going to be here a while.' She told Haley then.

She wasn't sure if she felt relieved or scared of that little admission Brooke gave her, all she knew was that she felt her heart flutter.

'Why are you telling me that?'

'I just thought you should know.' Brooke said softly as she stood up giving Haley's shoulder a squeeze. 'So we haven't much in the spare room bar a bed but the bed is really comfy…'

'Thanks Brooke.'

Brooke turned just before she stepped onto the stairs. 'We're here you know, for whatever you need.'